Michael Dierne

I'd agree with previous comments on a hedge.  You could always do a hawthorn or blackthorn hedge.  Those things are wicked sharp.  No one in their right mind is going to try to jump one of those even at 3-4'... They're also quite "pretty" in warmer months and stately though a little bare looking in the winter.

Be careful of making it a direct staple for anything you intend to eat -even for milk or eggs.  That much fish will definitely impact the taste of the end product.  Edit: actually if I could rely on a supply I'd create a few catfish and prawn ponds and use that as their food.  No problem worrying about a "fishy" taste there.

It would be pretty neat to buy a property like that.  I wouldn't clear cut but selling a bunch of the timber could net you a significant percentage of the purchase price back in little time.  You could designate some of the trees you keep for construction and gird a bunch of em..  Give it a year and you have dry standing logs for a house and barn etc.  You spend the year getting foundations ready then you're all ready to build log cabin style or 5-10k for a lumber mill to cut up the logs.  

Thinking about giving running cattle a try on the old family place using high density grazing (ala Greg Judy). I thought that having a portable chicken coop to place after the cows are done with an area might be a good idea but.. and forgive me, this might be a ridiculous question. Does anyone have an idea how much of a negative impact a rather large group of chickens might have on the benificial insect population? Earth worms, dung beetles and such? Maybe someone has experience with them on a smaller scale in gardens? I like the idea of using them to clean up any parasites in the pasture and I'd assume this benifit would outweigh any negative impact they'd have...